418 Tasting Notes

This is a good Assam blend, that would be especially nice for someone who likes the fruity, malty spectrum of Assam’s, and that like to take their tea with milk. It has a fair bit of tannins and moderate astringency so it is a good match for rich foods such as a fry up.

The dry leave are dark to chocolate coloured thin blades scattered with golden tips and smell of raisins and chocolate.

I have brewed this tea twice, both times at around 95*C for 3 minutes.

The first time I used 1 TSP per 225 ml. I found this to be a little bit too much leaf for me so I reduced it to about 3/4 TSP the second time.

The broth is a mahogany toned red.

Using 1 tsp resulted in a scent that is very fruity with cherry and citrus notes. Also present were spice, malt, pastry, milk chocolate and a hint of almond tones.

The tea tastes much heavier than it smells. Malt and cocoa are the first tones, followed by cinnamon with a hint of nutmeg and finishing with citrus opening up to cherry almond tone. There is a hint of a light floral if you hold the tea at the front of the mouth and allow air to move over it. The texture created by tannins and astringency are a little too strong to create a biscuit tone. The tea lends itself well to milk and would complement a fry up ( big greasy breakfast) quite well. As it cools the dark cherry and bitter malt tones blend more elegantly together with the cool floral note appearing lightly on top of it. This is a nice and robust tea and quite strong. Brewed this way this is a nice blend for those who like robust, heavily malty, fruity Assam’s. The tannins really coat your tongue, with this tea.

The tea resteeps nicely with citrus note intensifying and the tea tasting sweeter and and a little spicier.

Using 1 /4 less leaf, the first steep is much sweeter, with stronger cocoa notes and less bitter malt. The tea remains fruity, but the cherry note is less apparent. The flavours blend together well and are less distinct than when more leaf is used. The tannins and astringency are still quite apparent. A sweet tone with tinge of caramel is first apparent over cocoa and malt, with the flavour finishing with spice and a slightly tart fruit tone balanced by warm berry tone.

I must thank both Sil and boychik for their generous samples of this tea. It is a nice blend and makes a nice breakfast tea.

Preparation

“It has a fasir bit of tannins and moderate astringency …”
“The texture created by tannins and astringency are a little too strong …”
“This is a nice and robust tea and quite strong.”
“The tannins and astringency are still quite apparent.”
Not to be consumed before breakfast on an empty stomach!

I’ve been a tea lover all my life and haven’t had any such issues. However, this Assam, on that day, wasn’t a good idea on an empty stomach. I suspect it was me as I had heartburn for a couple of days afterwards.

The tea smells of blanched fresh peas, cantelope, chestnut and a hint of savoury greens.

The taste is intensely sweet with notes of melon, fresh peas, caramel, rock sugar, a hint of chestnut, and a hint of lilac. The higher temperature produced a thinner brew.
I kept my resteeps to intervals of 5-10s. These steeps had notes of melon, chestnut, peas, caramel, a touch of cocoa, and a touch of lilac spice. They were creamier and had a more balanced flavour sweet with just a hint of bitterness.

Using more leaf (1 TSP / 150ml) produced stronger spinach notes and bitter greens. Lower temperatures resulted in a creamier but more savoury brew.

The dry leaf smelled of a powdery chocolate smell with a hint of sugar and raisin as well as a hint of sweet aging straw. The tea never developed the sweetness apparent in the smell.

I brewed this tea 12 times after the rinse and used half a sample packet. ( 10, 20, 25, 30,35,40,45,50,60,80,120,180s). The broth was a brownish red tinged gold.

The first third of the steeps were dominated by a coffee like bitterness created by tones of leather, dried bitter greens, dry fall leaves, dark cocoa and charred dried aged wood. This was tempered by unsweetened cream, plum, warm lemon, and a hint of vanilla orchid.

In middle steeps the leather and bitter greens slowly dissipated and the wood developed a charred aged cedar tone. Honey became apparent underneath the fruit. Tones of sultana and licorice appeared briefly among the cocoa, charred wood, fruit and cream.

The later steeps were dominated by plum charred cedar, cocoa, honey and hints of vanilla orchid.
The tea produced a bright tingling at the front of the mouth and a warmth in the throat.

Thanks Angel I enjoyed this tea very much and appreciate the opportunity to really begin my education in puerh teas!

Once again thanks to the ever generous TeaVivre for their generous samples.

Thanks. I actually don’t have any formal training. Informally I grew up in a very multicultural environment and have had exposure to a wide variety of environments. I started cooking by taste when quite young and my mom and I used to go on wine tours from when I was a young teenager. Some of the vintners used to lay out samples from their entire production and I guess my education in discerning tastes and tones began there. I’ve generally had a pretty good sense of taste though! I have travelled a lot as well and it is sometimes interesting how different culinary traditions combine the same ingredients and obtain very different results. Or in some cases use small amounts of a simple ingredient to create a bold transformation in flavour.

I don’t feel I have a very good sense of taste myself, but it may be in part due to my racing mind, and my hope is that in slowing down I will be better at discerning flavors. I’ve already slightly better at it; I hope my ability to taste continues to improve as I continue to slow my life down.

I also appreciate that last sentence you posted, as it reminds me how the right changes in the right place at the right time, no matter how small, can transform lives.

This dry tea smells of rye bread that has been allowed to develop a dark crust and is slightly smokey and chocolate and has broken but still fairly large thin leaves ranging in colour from black to milk chocolate brown.

After 3 min at 95°C this tea brews up to a nice reddish copper.

The scent is soothing and warming of light to medium spicy smoke chocolate, a hint of vanilla orchid and a grainy slightly malty note and a hint of fruit.

The tea feels dense in the mouth, with moderate astringency. A sharp fruit tone like dark slightly sour berries and malt are up front, followed by a mild dark chocolate, insence like spice like burning fall leaves, and vanilla orchid to soften and balance the tea. This tea is nice and robust due to the tannins and the astringency. As it cools the chocolate, spicy tone from the smoke ( which is at a level I can appreciate and which enhances the flavour of the tea) and a robust grain tone become dominant and the sharper fruit are minimised. There is a tone that reminds me a little of iron and the flavour reminds me a little of a bitter sweet lava cake I once had.

After a resteep of 4 min the body is a touch thinner and it smells more of chocolate. When hot the sharp berry note is a biy more like a young wine with the sharp berrybalanced by bitter notes from the malt, cocoa, and smoke. There is a nice smokey, grainy element to this steep. This tea could probably take another resteep.

This tea is very nice, with a higher level of caffeine and with enough body to take milk if you prefer your tea that way, and a nice robustness in flavour. It reminds me of being at the field camp in Chapleau watching the mists rise off the lake in early morning and waking to the day in companionable silence. Overall very happy to have this in my cupboard.

I haven’t had that many yet. This one definitely has more chocolate tones and is slightly smokier than the ones I’ve had so far. It has a denser mouth feel and more astringency at this temperature. It is a bit more bitter, but this appeals to me as I love espresso. Of the ones I had the Teavivre superfine, reminded me. Of a jinjunmei I had. The whispering pines one had a menthol pine tone that I liked and made the tea very refreshing. The Marie Antoinette one was Avery broken op which was smooth but did not have the resteepability of these other ones. I had an older Zen tea one I liked as well. I’d like to try this one at a lower temp and try it using shorter steeps. It is not as elegant as some of the Keemun’s I’ve had, but I like the robustness, the chocolate notes in it and I appreciate the tones the smoke contributes.

Not professionally. I do like to cook by taste though, and enjoy experimenting with food from different cultures ( one of the joys of living in such a multicultural area). My mom also used to take me on wine tours when I was quite young 13-14. A friend of my mom’s knew the honour of one winery outside of St.Catherine’s and she used to lay out everything she produced that year and we’d sample it all.

I brewed this tea at closer to the recommended temperature of boiling and steeped it for at minutes and at least by the smell it works better for this tea. It smells more like caramel at the base tea smells more floral spicy rather than grassy as I remember it.

Taste wise the base tea is a little marine over a spicy sweet taste that mixes with a dried apricot type flavour. The caramel is present as a sweet buttery foot note but it might be more apparent as the tea cools.

Sipping on this a spinach note is present in the base as well.the flavouring is more apparent as it cools and I am getting that slightly sour tone you get from heated butter mixed with a browned sugar note. I like it best once it has cooled a little bit. Nice enough but I have been spoiled by some of my straight greens and I don’t find myself reaching for flavoured greens very often.

This tea had a lovely balance between the sweet and the savoury. I didn’t get the strong peach notes until later steeps, but I did get a lot of fruity tones from it including, longan, prune, fig tones, mulberry and lemon. This was bonded to the savoury notes by butter caramel, which evolved into honey, cocoa, malt and cereal notes and a touch of salt. The savoury herbaceous notes I found were, lemon thyme, the flavour you breathe in when you crumble dried oregano, cilantro, cinnamon, and towards the end ginger and artichoke. I got nine steeps out of this tea . (1tsp, 170ml,95°C: rinse, 10, 15,20,25,35,45,60,120,180s), and it has been a pleasant companion today.

Thanks TastyBrew for the opportunity to expand my experience with Taiwanese blacks!

I might of… But then I’ve been told I was born out of my time and that I am ageless:). I was ‘21’ from a time before I was a teenager and than became ‘16’ again when I was 24, when I went back to University they all thought I was 13 years younger than I am. So I don’t think your dating yourself.

This tea is one of the teas I picked up when I went to the Zen Garden restaurant in Mississauga http://www.zen-garden.ca/ourbranch.html. I need to go back there as I am especially fond of their Gold Monkey and their Osmanthus Dancong. As for this tea it is really nice and is much fresher and brighter tasting than the Lychee teas I have had in the past.

The dry tea has a bright and sharp fruity scent that is different than some of the lychee teas I have had in the past that have softened sweet, or floral fragrances. The scent rich and deep bright lychee fruit with a wine like raisin scent underneath from the base. They balance each other well and are a little spicy.

After 1 minute the broth is a reddish gold tone. It tastes of lychee fruit, a tone that slightly reminds me of dried figs, a rich malt in the base and a flavour that reminds me of a fruity rosé with the fruit, and wine tones mixing with the barest hint of rose. I could see how this could make a nice ice tea.

It resteeps well with consistent lychee flavour and a deepening wine, dark honey and cocoa notes in the base and with the lychee tasting more honey like and rounded with sweet sharp notes tempered with a touch of rose. So far I have steeped this tea three times (1,1.2,2 min) with the tea becoming sweeter and the fruit mellowing a little. Really enjoyable and now added to my Kin’s Zen Tea shopping list.

If you live close to one of their restaurants it is worth dropping in. The prices of their tea is cheaper than online and you can get samples, 25g and 50 g sizes, and you can get some teas in bulk that they only sell in tins online ( ie gold monkey). If not they sell online at http://zentea.ca/category.php?category=0.

JustJames gifted me a bit of this tea during our swap around Christmas and I am finally getting to it now. It is a lovely tea thanks James !

The dry leaves are long and loosely twisted cables that smell like a lighter grade dark chocolate with hints of Logan and a touch of cinnamon, scents that translate well into the flavour.

I steeped this tea as recommended for short steeps and used 1 TSP/200ml/95°C and steeping time starting at 1 min increasing by 1 min per steep.

The colour of the liquor is a bright reddish tinged golden brown.

Like Terry mentioned today the flavour remains fairly consistent through the steeps . The top note is of longan followed by cinnamon, chocolate, a hint of malt and honey.
The taste is a good balance between cocoa and fruit, there is a slightly buttery creamy tone that blend them together. A faint hint of cinnamon and malt binds everything underneath. As it cools the cocoa scent and taste intensifies. The tea is slightly sweetened by a honey like tone and a faint peppery note mixes with cocoa and honey in the aftertaste. It has a buttery, smooth texture. In resteeps the fruity tone is more apparent, but is softened from the sharper tones of longan.

This was a pretty enjoyable tea with chocolate tones that were easy to obtain, especially as the tea cools. Thanks again James!

I have to admit that I have difficulty western brewing Oolong’s ( I only have one that I brew that way on any regular basis). There is something about the complexity of tastes, the spice and the warmth it produces in my body that compels me to play with the tea and deconstruct its flavours. I’ve had this sample for a while but have only recently had the time and the health to fully appreciate it.

This is a lovely tea it has a wonderful mix of dark honey, fruit, a variety of floral tones, cured pine, roasted charcoal note, corn, and a variety of savoury vegetable notes. I absolutely enjoyed it and could easily see myself purchasing some in the future. Thank you very much to Temple Road for sharing this tea with me.

I must be impressed with the quality of the packaging of temple road tea as even this sample was packed with a dessication packet to control the moisture levels of the tea.

The dry tea is composed of tightly wound nuggets that are dark spruce and olive green heading towards a dark charcoal colour. The leaves smell of a mix of sweet fruit, charcoal roasted notes and a faint woodiness but are overall very fruity.

I steeped the tea 11 times after a rinse (45,30,35, 40,50,55,60,70,80,90, and 120s)

35s. Brew is a deeper saffron like colour. Scent buttery, spicy soft floral, with fruit not as intense as before, honey, hint of sweet buttery lettuce like greens.
Taste hint of spinach,spice a faint echo of cloves on top of floral spice vanilla cream, touch of honey, sweet cooked greens, aftertaste of warm peaches. A balance between, savoury, sweet, and spicy, a little perfumy.

40s. cream over stewed peaches and papaya, vanilla, and floral spice.
Floral spice better balanced with other flavours so it is nit so perfumy, sweet buttery green tones slightly more apparent, a touch of spinach. Spicy feel at the front of the mouth.

The dried leaf of this tea is beautiful with the blade being a little wider than some assams I’ve had and there being quite a few quite downy golden buds. Its quite beautiful to look at.

The first time I made this tea I made the mistake of both overleafing and oversteeping this tea, thinking that I would need to compensate for its age, and it turned out to be dominated by oatmeal and bitter cocoa and malt notes and its rich sweet notes were hidden.

To compensate this time, I stuck to 1 tsp/ 8 oz / @95°C, and after an @ 3 min steep the tea brews up to this beautiful red ochre tinged orange, and smelled of a blend of spice, red fruits and honey underlain by malt, cocoa, and a hint of oatmeal.

The flavour was sweet with malt and oatmeal first, followed by honeyed fruit ( red fruit with a touch of raisin), with spice and finishing with bitter cocoa. The dominant flavour is honey, spice and bitter cocoa. It has a good dose of caffeine.

Very nice and it makes me want to try Capital Tea Ltd more recent offering from this estate.

can’t wait to start digging in to the teas out sent me. Hoping for friday if i can manage it while moving…otherwise i’m splurging after the move on 10 mins to just sit and drink at least ONE of your teas lol